DirecTV announces remote control app coming soon to iPad

We've had an iPhone app for DirecTV for quite a while now. It allows you to program your DVR directly from your smartphone, and it works well enough. Now, the satellite giant has announced an iPad app that will do the DVR programming, but also allow you to control your TV, customize the program guide, check sports scores and easily find programs you want to see.

With the extra real estate on the iPad screen, DirecTV can offer a much richer experience than the iPhone app, and from the preview on the DirecTV site, it looks like a great option for customers. Using the standard DirecTV remote to find programs is pretty painful, because navigating the onscreen keyboard involves lots of clicks and easy frustration.

There's no delivery date for the app, which will be free. DirecTV says it will be "soon." One catch: DirecTV says you'll need a certain receiver and remote to use some of the services, and it sounds like the connection will be made on a local Wi-Fi network. The fine print also suggests that "in rare instances, scheduled recordings may not be recognized," so the system may not be quite ready to completely depend on. Still, when you just want to make a few changes using a little better UI, the iPad app should serve. We'll keep an eye out for it.